This invention relates to improvements in an energy absorbing apparatus for vehicles that is adapted to be placed between relatively displaceable members, such as the cabin or burden carrier and the frame of a truck, or the cabin and the frame of a saloon or sedan.
When a vehicle collides, the cabin or the burden carrier mounted on the frame is relatively displaced over the frame by the reaction of impact force applied on the vehicle. As a consequence, there have been such dangers that the passenger be violently thrown outside against the colliding object or crushed by the burden carrier moving with enormous kinetic energy.
To eliminate the aforesaid shortcoming, several means have been proposed, among which is an energy absorbing apparatus comprising a die that is provided between the cabin or burden carrier and the frame through spherical surfaces so as to be rotatable in all directions, and a drawable member passed through a die hole formed in said die. If the colliding vehicle is subjected to impact force exceeding a given value, the cabin or burden carrier is relatively displaced over the frame, whereupon the drawable member of said energy absorbing apparatus is drawn aslant through the die, thereby absorbing the kinetic energy of the cabin or burden carrier. However, the above-described energy absorbing apparatus has a disadvantage of high manufacture cost, because of the need to provide the spherical surfaces through which the die and the drawable member are to be supported on the frame and the cabin or burden carrier.